I thumbed the pill bottle on the table, and rolled it until the label faced upwards. "ANTI-PSYCHOTIC 1 PILL DAILY WITH FOOD" glared back at me, in a cold and unforgiving black and white font. The bottle remained full, despite the bottle being almost a week old. Every day, I ordered the same thing from this cafe, a refill coffee and a chicken supreme, and let my food go cold while I stared at the bottle. Because this bottle promised some kind of escape.

I could feel it glaring at me. I knew that if I looked ahead of me, or in the reflection of the cutlery, or in the mirror at the back of the coffee shop, I would see it. Haunting, pale and ceaselessly grinning. The skin around its mouth tight and creased. Some days I would stare at it for hours, while other locals in the cafe would grow more and more uncomfortable at the strange man with cold food, glaring tearfully into the middle distance.

And the more I stared at it, the more I felt an intense fear grow inside of me, until it threatened to claw its way through my chest and bare all of my darkest secrets to the strangers in this nondescript cafe. So I stopped, and instead I stared at the 50mg pills that a doctor had prescribed for me a week ago.

I hadn't taken them. There was an aura of hatred around the bottle, as if the forces that had concocted them were more malevolent than whatever had sent me my incessant, smiling demon. Some ancient part of my instinct told me not to touch them, that a truth was hidden behind the tormented eyes of my silent companion, but in the throes of my anguish I took 3.

Weeks passed this way. The demon would not disappear, but the pills would blur everything, so that the grin would smear its way across my vision into an amorphous cloud of yellowing teeth, and I could no longer make out the shapes that haunted my waking hours. I could function, but barely. It was a kind of half existence, that offered an escape from the torment, but at the cost of everything else. A bleach for my sorrows.

Until I saw another blur, hovering its way at the edges of my eyesight. It moved like the ghost that haunted me, without steps, floating over tables and resting on window ledges. I knew something had changed, because I saw the two blurs sit down at the table together. In that moment, I knew that there was something here I needed to see through.

I rested my head on the table and closed my eyes, willing myself to overcome the pills. If, just for a moment, I could see and think clearly, I could find out what was so significant about a young woman, eating lunch with her ethereal demon.

When I opened them again, the cafe was empty. I knew instantly that I had slept, and the staff, having seen me wandering in a daze for weeks, had elected to leave me alone. All that remained were a few of the young workers, cleaning tables. The pills had worn off, meaning I had been asleep for hours. And then I heard her voice.

"They won't help, you know". I jumped in my chair, and looked at her. She smiled at me, a smile without pity or malice, it was a thin but friendly and it spoke of a burden shared and suddenly halved. "These things, they're not from here, so nothing from here will get rid of them". I didn't say anything, I just looked to her side and saw that her demon was much like mine. Only hers didn't grin, its teeth did not show, and instead it merely looked at me, curious, inquisitive. I could see behind its eyes that the torment was gone. And there were crumbs on its shirt collar. I realised what I had seen before. They had sat down to eat together.

I stared back at the young woman, and she fixed me with a look that preempted my question. She placed a hand on my shoulder. "They're not here to haunt you. They need your help."

I looked back at my demon, and for the first time, behind the crimson red pupils and bloodshot eyes, through the taut skin around its mouth and the strained neck muscles from its stretched face, I glimpsed a momentary light that shone for only a moment. I recognised that light, and knew in that moment what I needed to do. I shuffled up on the bench and made space for the demon, who slowly, cautiously, floated over and took his seat next to me. And the corners of his smile twitched.

(Sorry if its not good. Pretty new to writing and it's like 1 am. Took over an hour to write so hope you like it)

I sharply turned back to my coffee, puzzled and a little freaked out. Could it be possible that it was actually real? The way she looked at me... It was like she saw it too. I thought it was just a hallucination, it couldnt be real. I turned back to look at the woman again and saw her quickly look back down at her coffee.

I shifted my gaze to the thing towering behind her, staring daggers at her, face wide with a grin that took the saying 'smiling ear to ear' a little literal. It seemed identical to mine.

I had to talk to her, see if these creatures were real or just my imagination. But I couldn't just walk up to her and say "Hey! Are you aware of the creepy monster following you around or do I just needa go to the hospital?"

After thinking for a little while I finnaly decided how to approach her. It probably wasn't the most practical way but what the hell.

I stood up and walked over to her table. When I spoke she seemed to startle a little. "Hey, I saw you looking at me over there and I..." "Oh yeah sorry bout that I just uh.. find you kinda attractive, couldn't take my eyes of you haha" Well wasn't the way I was planning but guess it's a way. I opened my mouth to speak but she cut me off again "you know what, here, here's my number, gimme a call " She forced a small slip of paper into my hand before standing up and hurridly rushing out of the shop, creature following. Confused I looked down at the slip in my hand. I guess I was hallucinating after all.

I tried to carry on my day like usual after then, go back to work once my lunch break was over, then finish up work at 5 and go back to my dark, lonely apartment, sitting on the couch watching tv with the creature next to me like usual.

"Greg could ya move? Your blocking the tv" I looked up at the creature standing Infront of me, just staring, grinning "ya know it wouldn't hurt ya to blink once in a while, maybe you'd seem a little more alive then and not just my personal horror movie"

I looked down at the "my name is" tag I had placed on the right side of it's chest a couple of weeks ago with 'Greg' written in scraggly writing. It was difficult writing on such a flesh like surface. I guess I really must be crazy to give a hallucination and name.

After a deep sigh I pulled the slip of paper with the woman from the coffee shops number on it. Better than spending the night alone, well mostly alone. I pulled out my phone and she answered surprisingly quickly. It didn't take long for her to invite me to a small restaurant not far from my place. I was mainly surprised how quickly she invited me for a same day date. Only had about 2 hours to get ready.

At 7:40 I was still waiting at the table, starting to wonder if I had been stood up. A few moments later the woman quickly ran in ,apologizing and complaining about the traffic. She sat down across from me, the monster rushing to be by her side.

As the date continued I quickly learned that she doesn't stop talking, like ever. It was difficult to get a word in. On the bright side I quickly learned quite a bit about her. Her name was Mary, she lived not too far from my place, her favorite food was lasagna, or ice cream, or fish and chips, she couldn't decide. I also quickly learnt that I would not be going on another date with her.

Eventually she said something that pulled me out of my boredem. "I'm guessing your not here to find out my favourite color though" "of course I am, I think your really pretty and a nice person" "are you kidding? Youve been looking at it all night"

I froze. Could it not be a hallucination, could it be real, I wasn't sure which one I'd prefer to be honest. "What do you mean it?" I asked, deciding to play it safe. "Oh come on, I know you know, you have one too. Like it's name by the way. How'd you get yours?" "How did I... Get mine?" I wasn't playing stupid anymore, I had no idea what she meant by 'get'. Wasn't like I walked into a pet store and said "I'd like the most terrifying thing you have please"

"Yeah get" she said like it was obvious. "Ya know how you get them right?" " No..." I replied, puzzled. "Oooh you must be a newbie. How long you had yours?" "Uuh about 5 or 6 weeks I think" my voice drifting off a bit, everything I knew seeming to become hazy. "Ohh you must've been the guy in the car accident" "how do you know about that?" I quickly snapped back, my anger beginning to boil.

"Calm down, I saw it in the news, shame that other guy didn't make it out. I know how it feels, to accidentally take a life" she seemed calmer and... sadder now, not as bubbly and talkative as before. "It's already a horrible feeling, being racked with guilt and pain, watching as their family crys and sobs, hearing them yell and threaten you. Already bad enough without these guys" she turned to look at her monster smiling next to her with pain in her eyes.

I looked up at Greg standing next to me, only now connecting the dots. It was only at the funeral when it appeared. Everybody thought I'd gone crazy when I started yelling and screaming. I thought I'd gone crazy too.

I turned back to look at Mary. "Do you know what it is?" I asked hopefully. She looked at me and took a deep breath. "Sometimes when somebody has enough guilt, the can accidentally summon it" "yes but what IS it" I asked, starting to get impatient.

After a moment she told me "It's a demon"

Alexa's going crazy. There's no other possible reason for it. She doesn't even know how it happens.

One day she wakes up, only to see a ghoul like creature staring back into the depths of her soul. It doesn't resemble anything, just a vague black shape, with a hood covering it.

It must have eyes, for it follows her everywhere but she's never seen them. Then again, no one else sees the creature either.

She tried running for miles, screaming even going on a road trip to another state but the creature is always there. Lurking in the corner.

Alexa stares morosely at her coffee - her last one before she checks herself into the mental hospital.

Thats when she sees the woman. And the creature behind her. Alexa whirls around on instinct, but her ghoul's still behind her.

There's two of them now. She scrambles out of seat, running towards the woman.

"Hey!"

The woman looks at her, eyes widening before she starts running.

Alexa puts on a burst of speed, almost catching up to her. She needs answers. "Hey! Please! I need to know what's wrong with me."

The woman stares at her, pursing her lips, before looking at the ghouls beside them.

"Stay away from me. The more of us together, the stronger they become and then we'll be caught. "

Alexa frowns, narrowing in on one word. "Us?"

The woman rolls her eyes. "For someone who cheated death you sure seem to be trying to get killed."

I never drink coffee! But there I was ordering an espresso.

While the barista made my drink I looked at my other shadow. Still there staring at me with a silly grin on its face. I gave up trying to describe it years ago. Because no matter how many times I told someone about it they always forgot about it. I’ve never seen it do anything: it just sits there. I touched it once; I’m not doing that again.

After I made sure the world hadn’t come to an end, frightening the thing away, I started looking around the room. A tall fellow is arguing with someone who seems to be his sister. Someone who could stand to lose a few pounds has three empty cups in front of him, I’ll bet he’s in between jobs right now. Over there on the opposite side of the room is is a young lady about my age, she’s nice looking, probably not the most beautiful person but I wouldn’t mind seeing her first thing in the morning. There’s a couple with a—

Wait! Did I see another unsharable familiar behind her? I did. She’s looking at it now. It’s a little different from mine: it has a pair of horns instead of antlers; it’s front legs have three elbows each instead of two; but the big difference is its fur, mine has the fir going backwards while its fur goes forwards.

I wonder if she can see my… creature. Now that I think about it her face looks more attractive than I thought. I like how she has her hair flowing down her back. I like how she doesn’t cover the scar on her cheek with a ton of makeup. I like the way she looks deep into my eyes. I—

Imma go talk to her. After a connection like that I’d be a fool not to.

“Hello!”

“Sit!”

“My name’s Henry.”

“Maria.”

“Are you single?” Why did I ask that? That’s too soon.

“Yes…”

“Do you see this thing following me?” That’s better.

“Uhhuh.”

“You wanna talk about it?”

“Sure!” She smiled, then said “if you were to die tonight, where do you think your soul would go?”

Well… I’ve met my soulmate!

Come check out my other stories that can be found on Reddit.

It was there, Evan could feel its gaze on the back of his neck. His body stiffed in response to his instincts that were telling him to run.

It's pointless, it would just appear right behind me even if I go to the North pole... Evan thought as he continued ordering.

"May I get another shot of espresso?" Evan told the barista as he pulled out his wallet from his back pocket.

"Sir, your drink already contains 2 shots of espresso, are you sure?" The always smiling barista had a frown on her face.

Shut the hell up and do what I say! Evan remained calm even though in his mind he was already in the process of screaming at the barista. "Yes, I'm sure." He uttered as he suppressed a yawn. He has barely slept since that....thing...appeared suddenly out of thin air. He could feel his mind decaying from the lack of proper hours of sleep. He became angrier, easily ticked off and sometimes violent. Thankfully the violence is just inside his head, but the situation is making him lose a little bit of his mind every day.

"As you wish." the barista added another shot of espresso to his coffee. "That would be 3 dollars."

Evan raised an eyebrow in surprise but still paid. "Why is it so cheap today?"

The barista shrugged. "I don't know, the owner came in the morning telling us to make a 30% discount on everything."

Evan only smiled and then walked away, he still had 15 minutes before he needed to be at work, he would sit down and enjoy his coffee before going to the company. He found an empty place and sat down, he spied the creature to his left, Evan looked at it. It was an ugly thing, Its skin was green as grass, scars adored Its exposed body. But his body wasn't the worst thing about It, but Its face was the root of the problem. Those big red eyes that didn't move an inch. Its nose, or in better terms the lack of one, it was like it was completely sliced off by a blade. Nails and small metal roads adorned Its face and pierced lips that were always grinning showing Its sharp teeth.

What an ugly bastard. Evan has tried to talk to it multiple times, but the creature would only look at him and grin. Evan didn't even know what gender it was, there was nothing in Its crotch region, just flat skin.

Evan looked away from the monstrous creature and looked outside the window, it was a nice day, cold, but it was expected, winter was here after all. The ringing of the front door of the coffee shop brought his attention to the person entering the shop.

Gasp. Evan almost spilled his coffee all over himself, but he didn't even notice that because of the woman that entered the shop. She was young, maybe early twenties or late teenage years. She was pretty but not anything special, but that wasn't what interested him, what interested him was the creature following the young lady. It was almost identical to the one following him except for the red skin color, purple pupils and the small horns on top of its head.

What in the actual fuck is going on? Evan was losing it, he was not alone in having these creatures following him? What were those creatures? What do they want?

Evan's gaze went back to the young woman and found her looking at him with a look of horror on her face. Their eyes connected and it was like a shared understanding went through them, they both don't know what these creatures are.

Evan felt a chill down his spine, it was like death was looking at him, he looked at the direction the feeling came from and the woman's creature was looking at him and moving Its fingers in a weird way, if it was any normal human then their fingers would've broke but not this one weird being, Its fingers followed Its every command and nothing happened to them.

"Finally we meet, Zlanoth, you've become uglier than I remember." A coarse voice speaking in a weird tongue that Evan understood for some reason came from his left. Evan looked and it was none other than the creature that has been following him for weeks on end without speaking a word.

The red skinned creature cranked Its neck and stared at the green one. "Ah, look who do we have here? Nogroth the Unblessed, I wondered where you disappeared to, I thought you were plotting something, but it looks like you went back to your old hobby of stalking mortals." Evan caught the eyes of the woman, she was also shook, her eyes were drifting from the red skinned creature to the green skinned one in rapid motion.

Evan realized how weird it looked that two adults were looking at each other without speaking, so he gestured for the woman to come to his table. The woman hesitated but she came eventually, she sat down and didn't initiate conversation, neither did Evan as they were more focused on the two creatures arguing.

"I always hated that title, the Unblessed, it makes me sound more pathetic than I actually am. Not that you would understand, Zlanoth of the Hundred Souls. Talking about my hobby, why are you following this mortal girl, want to add her to your collection?"

"Don't compare me to your filthy hobbies, you were always the one who kept mortals as pets, not me."

"Then, why are you following her?"

"It seems not having horns really did affect you, can't you feel it inside her? The girl is a descendant of an angel, her soul will probably help me get a lot stronger."

"Don't you think it is bad manners to talk about eating someones soul when they are a couple meters away?"

"So what? She doesn't understand us anyway, for her we are probably only growling, what a pathetic race...."

They don't know we can understand them! Evan felt like this was big news, but it was not time for it, the woman whose soul was to be eaten was starting to cry. Evan knew exactly what he had to do, he grabbed his things as fast as he could and then started power walking toward the exit, leaving the woman behind.

It is not my problem, she is doomed, I can't change anything... Evan repeated these words the whole time he was walking toward his job, the sound of the woman begging for him to stop and help her was thrown to the back of his head.

POP!

Out of nowhere the creature following him appeared in front of him with a grin adoring Its face. Evan dropped on the floor from surprise.

"So you do understand us, don't you, little Evan?" The creature spoke again with that coarse voice.

"A...are you going to eat my soul too?" Evan asked weakly and in a quiet voice.

"Eat your soul? Ahahah, do not worry, my taste is different from that ugly bastard. But that doesn't mean I won't kill you, unless....."

"Unless what?"

"Unless you follow my missions and achieve them all." The creature smiled in a wicked way that sent shivers down Evans spine but Evan at that moment was ready to do anything to live, even if it meant the sacrifice of his humanity.

"Anything, I would do anything!"

The creature smiled, but Evan could see disgust in Its eyes. "You lot are truly a pathetic race. Now for your first mission, kill someone by the end of the day......."

I glanced at the women with short brown hair and blue eyes across the boisterous coffee shop as we made eye contact. I sipped my coffee casually as I contemplated. The women broke eye contact as she glanced at the creature behind me.

Well this is a first.

Behind the women was an ugly creature with a wicked smile staring and grinning at me across the table. It winked at me.

What should I do?

Should I get up and leave?

No...there are times when it's best to just do nothing. I will just sit here and finish my coffee and pretend this never happened.

I ignored her as I pulled out my "notebook" as I read the list of names.

Hmm who's next? I need to think on this.

I felt a sharp gaze and glanced upwards.

Hmm when did she?

Blue eyes greeted me as the women slammed a similar notebook on the table I was sitting behind. I raised my brow, Her face inches from my own.

"Um, Miss? You're a little too close for comfort...could you take a step back?"

The women ignored me as she observed me up close.

"We need to talk. Privately." She spoke softly in the busy coffee shop. If it wasn't for the fact that I could read lips to a degree I wouldn't of understood her even if she was this close.

"Excuse me?" I pretended not to hear her.

"You heard me, you-me, outside...now." She spoke louder this time.

I sighed. "Okay fine."

We left the coffee shop and walked around the block until we made an odd turn into an alley way. Our smiling creatures following us as we went. Now that we were finally alone She turned back to me.

"Your notebook. What names have you written?"

"Hmm?" I played dumb which only seemed to infuriate her. She grabbed my collar and shoved me against the wall in the abandoned alley.

" Don't toy with me. We both saw one another's creatures, no? So just give it to me straight."

I took a breath.

"You're just like me then I guess. I suppose the notebook you so brazenly slammed on the table back at the coffee shop was a deathnote as well?"

The women gave me an obvious look.

"Duh. So tell me which names did you write?"

"Trade secret. I'm sure you will hear of it on the news later anyways so why bother asking?" The women thought a moment before nodding her head.

"That makes sense." She let go of my collar and stepped back.

"I'm sorry, to be honest I am just nervous. This is the first time I've met someone like myself."

"Me too."

"Really?" She looked at me curiously.

"How can you be so calm?"

"Practice." I said plainly.

"Hmm. Whatever. Give me your phone."

"Why?" I tilted my head.

"So we can keep in contact dummy."

I guess it couldn't hurt. I'm curious as well to be honest. What names she has written. But unlike her I respect privacy. Especially with something as personal as that.

"Uh okay?" I pulled out my phone and unlocked it only for it to get snatched by the women's hands. She quickly put her number in before handing it back. She turned and slowly walked out of the alley. As she turned the corner she spoke for the last time.

"When your ready to talk about it, call me."

I stood in the alley alone in my thoughts while I looked at the new contact in my phone. shewhowillnotbenamed and couldn't help but chuckle.

Hmm...My life just got a bit more interesting. A small smile graced my lips as I left the alley behind.

Our eyes met, accidentally, it seemed. She was instead staring right past me. At my Cheshire....thing. Which was, for the first time, blinking. And not grinning at all.

And then our horrors were embracing each other. And through whispers that sounded like a chorus of last breaths and felt like insects digging beneath our skin, they were....catching up on old times?

They caught us staring, and laughed.

"I don't know either." She said, before I could ask.

"I'm not looking for a meet cute." I said, to assure her. But also to assure myself.

She shared her drink with me. Not the coffee. The beer she kept in her purse for such emergencies. "Did we just introduce the keymaster to the gatekeeper?"

"Probably. The human race is doomed."

"Beats all the other ways we were doomed." She paused. Took a moment to eye me, and then grabbed her keychain tight. "Do you want to fuck?"

Nope. I wanted to wake up, and have the world make sense again. "Do you?"

"I have no idea. But I don't want to think about any of this."

"Damn, you're smooth."

"Yeah, let's both be smooth, and get out of here while we can..."

I hadn't seen them. The others. Suddenly, every shadow had teeth. And not a single warm body in the coffee shop had only one.

We ran.

I don't know for how long.

And some days, I think we never stopped.

Meanwhile, back at the gathering of demons:

"You were right. It's more fun to just let them scare themselves." Said one impossible smile, while all her secret smiles laughed.

"This is just the beginning. We're going to church tomorrow - don't ask, it takes too long to explain. You'll understand when you see their reaction."

"No, I believe you. They're humans, after all. Of course they were always going to end the world." She saw her grin reflected in their terrified eyes, and was flattered. "I just thought they'd make us work for it."

"Well, it's not easy for me to be on my best behavior..." He teased. "Maybe you've gone soft?"

She had to fight back the sudden temptation to eat someone. "Sadist."

"You love it."

"Of course I love it. It's why I married you, stupid. At least 27 times. Also, heads up, I think we've just been promoted."

The few humans who remained had fallen to their knees, and were, one by one...bowing. And one among them asked the question that was on all their minds. "Are you a God?"

Even the demons weren't quite sure.

The creature appeared weeks ago. I don't even know how many now. It's like it's been there forever. Just watching me, smiling, silently laughing at me. Other than that it left me alone. But was always there, floating two feet off the ground, watching me. No one else seemed to notice it. So I just ignored it as best I could most of the time. But today was different. I stopped at Horrorbucks to get a coffee.

I don't go very often cause it's overpriced and crappy but it was the closest place to me at time and I needed a pick me up. I sat down in a corner both, away from the door. I like to people watch while I enjoy my coffee.

In she walked. The most beautiful woman I've ever seen. She could make models cry. Behind her floated a creature too. I hadn't seen another one before. It looked the same but different. I couldn't tell why but I knew it was a little different than mine.

She ordered a coffee and walked over to the table next to mine and sat down. Neither of saying anything to the other but constantly looking out of the corner of our eyes at the others creature. Trying to figure out the difference, trying to figure out our similarities. Why do we have creatures, why are they almost identical, why us??

Then I heard the laughter for the first time but this was from her creature.

"Mwhahhaha. You both have the same desire little one. You both want to kill everyone here" said her creature. Not mine. I was shocked. Even more so when I realized she didn't hear it.

I moved to her table and introduced myself. "hi I'm Clyde, I don't know it's name. Who are you?"

"Hi Clyde, I'm Bonnie."

I try my best to non-chalantly sip my coffee, but I watch as her eyes flicker from me to my Visitor. She seems to see him as well. A lump forms in my throat; all this time, I thought it was my brain slowly deteriorating, blaming me for the accident, but she sees it too. All I can think to do is observe her visitor. It shares an uncanny resemblance to mine, the only point of difference being its’ gender. Same unnervingly big build, same glowing yellow eyes, same tight, red skin that occasionally sends a spark shooting outwards. 3 arms, just like mine, and 2 hands on each arm. 3 legs, just like mine, and 2 feet on each leg. It looms over her, whispering in her ear and inaudibly laughing, when all of a sudden it makes contact with my Visitor. It breaks into hysterics, slumping on her shoulder and crying out, while she stiffens and tries her best not to pay attention. I look back at my Visitor, and she is not laughing. She is sitting there with the same sinister grin and yellow-eyed stare. Her eyes bore into mine, and her grin grows a fraction wider.

“Go talk to her,” She utters. Her raspy, deep voice shakes me to my core, but I am not brave enough to protest. I find my legs and make my way to her table, taking the seat across from the girl. Unsurprisingly, she doesn’t argue.

“Hello. What is your name?” she asks. Her words are slow and enunciated, as if she had practiced what she was going to say.

“Henry,” I respond, “And yours?”

Her face turns pale, and she sucks in a deep breath while conjuring up her response. “Alice,”

My heart beat stops. It couldn’t be. I look at my Visitor, who is now doubled over in laughter, and feel my lunch return to my mouth.

It was not a coincidence. That I was sure of.

“Alice,” I parrot, “Are we dead?”

“No,” She responds before I can finish my final word, “No. My name is Alice and your name is Henry. Alice and Henry are not dead. They are very much alive. And they both can see everyone’s visitors.”

“Sorry,” I start, “what do you mean everyone’s?”

She stops breathing, her face turning crimson red, “you only see mine?” She asks.

“Everyone has a visitor?” I counter.

She runs over my question in her mind before slowly responding.

“Yes. Everyone has a visitor. Most people have tiny visitors. I’ve never seen one over the size of an average book. Except, of course, for mine. And now, yours,” I keep my breathing even, though I feel as though I might faint. My legs feel weak, but I manage to choke out, “How long has yours been here?”

“Fifteen years.”

"Who's luggage is on the ground?"

The security guard pauses momentarily and in a loud voice, "Room 308."

"Finally, that loon got kicked out," the elderly lady exhales a sigh of relief.

Apartment room number 308 is padlocked and chained like a psycho ward, and from time to time you can hear screams of agony like someone is summoning the 10th circle of demons from hell. Finally, the residents have kicked him out. He picked up the suitcase and dragged it across the road, wearing a ragged shirt and torn-up pants. As he walked, the whole road smelled like one year's worth of garbage piled up that hadn't been taken out. He opened the door to the cafe and sat down with a paper in his hand.

"One latte coffee, please?"

The barista took him for a hobo and gave him stinky eyes.

He pulled up the wallet and counted the dollars until his eyes met with the lady next to him. He looked down quickly and waited for the coffee. He glance at her time to time, or he glance at the side of her seat that is open.

"Your coffee, sir," she looks at the lady, affirming if she is in any danger from the creep that looks at her from time to time. but the lady smiles, affirming that she is all right.

"Tell me if you want anything else, ma'am," she says as she walks away from the table.

"She is recommending you her favorite, its called espresso policio, you can see it on the menu: a 911 call plus a coffee; it come as a package."

The lady next to him smiles. "Maybe she is being a good Samaritan."

"Anyone would be cautious if they saw me sitting next to them; I smell like shit, I dressed like a hobo overoll i look like I crawled out of a cave. But the point is how come you can look and smile like this when you have that thing next to you," he points out the seat next to her.

"what thing?" lady

He makes a fist as he leans close to her.

"I have taken a dozen pills so mine can disappear, but I only overdosed." No, I didn't die, but I lost everything else while this thing just stared at me from a corner, grinning with that twisted lip. "Now, out of nowhere, I see another person just like me at a coffee shop, and you say this thing that looks like a burned corpse that came out of hell-"

"Quiet down; everyone is looking here, If you keep raising your voice, everyone is going to order an espresso policio"

He backs down, breathing in and out, calming himself out.

"listen, iam-"

"No, you listen," the tension in the room slightly goes up as the lady's body shivers, but she kept on smiling.

From now onwards, up until that clock hanging on the wall, both hands are going to hit 12 in only 120 seconds. Listen to me until then; don't interrupt me or say anything else in the middle, or I will get up and go. Until you hear the clock's bell, stay silent and listen. "Nod if you agree."

He stared blankly as he nodded in awe.

"In 1967, there was a 15-year-old girl named Matilda who lived in with her grandma, she was brought up in a poor household with no parents, and with a lot of weight on her shoulders, she had to do manual labor the whole day until she went to sleep with only 2 meals a day if she was lucky. " "And while she's doing this, she also needs to take care of her grandmother; talk about irony."

Arthur blinks as he doesn't know where the hell this story came from, but as promised, he nods.

"One dark rainy day, when after all chores finished; walking up along the way, she saw a well, scribbled in the well, it says "wishing well".

she paused.

"The scribbling said, 'All of your wishes will come true with a penny as the price'"

He opened his mouth, but a gasp of air came out. she continues.

"With the last penny she got in her pocket, she took it out and wished for the obvious."

"The riches and wealth this little girl wants it all."

Later that day, she gets her wish granted; she gets adopted by two wealthy couples. They showered her with riches and affection. She hired a personal maid to take care of her grandma, and from time to time she visited her. one day as she visited her grandma and told her the truth. But her grandma wasn't happy to hear that. She dragged her granddaughter to the wishing well and begged her to withdraw the wish. She curses at the grandmother, and she leaves that place. After that, she never visited her grandmother, and every time she tries to come see her, she turns her back. She has not even visited her own grandmother's funeral."

"On her 26th birthday, something strange happened; she saw a strange creature appear before her. The worker notices unusual behavior from her: every time they talk with her, she kept on smiling and sometimes she just looks at them from a distance. On her next birthday, they saw her death on the bed in the most brutal way possible; her nails were drenched in blood; do you know why? she scratched the walls, doors, and carpet, all of them scratched in blood, saying "It's looking at me?" She even tried to claw her way out of her room until she clawed her eyes-."

He grabbed her hands, giving the signal to stop.

"The scribbling in the well, Matilda only read half the sentence; do you know what the full sentence says?"

He nodes frantically.

"All of your wishes will come to for the price of a penny, but now on from 12 years you and now on your family line every 12th baby-"

"^(will be mine.)"

As he opened his mouth, the clock rang at 12 o'clock.

The Demon That Followed Him Home

Stephen woke up at eight o’clock sharp. For weeks, this little demon had been following him. He found it on the way home from work and it had not left him alone since. No one else could see it and attempts to tell people about it only made him a pariah. People looked at him with odd expressions, whispered behind his back. He was the crazy cooch that talked about a demon that did not exist.

It sat on the bed next to where Stephen slept, staring at him, smiling. It was almost always smiling. It was weird like that. Like it was in near-perpetual happiness.

The demon slept during the day and became active at night. Stephen was not actually sure it was nocturnal. The demon had a tendency to back itself into a corner during the night. Like his closet. Stephen deduced it was actually just afraid of the dark and ran to a place that had limited access to hide. So, like his closet. Odd. The stories were wrong he guessed.

Stephen got up. He threw the covers off him and over the demon. It made a surprised sound and struggled to get the covers off. Stephen’s daily routine was interrupted by the demon teleporting into his bathroom. Half the time it would follow him into the shower and clean itself. The other half it would just sit there and wait for Stephen to finish everything.

Once done, Stephen went to get his clothes. The demon of course followed him back out. Stephen would get breakfast at a local café. Coffee too. He needed that. His job was being the groundskeeper of a medium-sized accounting firm. The land they were on required upkeep. Mowing, trash, weeding, and so on.

It was a good job. The demon followed him out the door and to the café. He had long gotten used to it being around him. It was harmless, despite being a demon. As he was walking, he heard the demon trip and fall forward. Every so often, it would trip over its own feet. It went down and made a squeak. Stephen didn’t bother to try to help it. He kept walking. The demon would catch up.

Stephen got to the café and ordered his usual. The demon sat behind him as he talked to the cashier and paid. A breakfast sandwich and a coffee. As he was making his way to a seat, he spied something odd. There was a demon. Not his. Sitting on a woman’s head. She would say some things. And that demon moved its mouth as if it was responding back.

Stephen stopped walking. And of course, his demon walked into him. He could feel it look up at him in confusion. The woman noticed the commotion and was confused too until she looked down and saw his demon walking around him to get in front of Stephen while looking up at his face. The woman beckoned Stephen to come over and have a seat. Nothing better to do and this was the first time he had ever seen a second demon, Stephen did so.

“Hi. I’m Sandy.” The woman stood up to shake his hand. She was a bit shorter than him. Her hair was light brown and her eyes were hazel. She was wearing her hair in a bun behind her. Her clothes looked trendy. Maybe someone from minor nobility.

The demon continued to sit on her head.

As a comparison, Stephen was shaved bald. All male commoners were shaved bald. His eyes were pale green, though. His clothes were drab. Made him look like a prisoner. Most male commoners did.

“Stephen.”

“Not much of a talker, I guess, Stephen,” as Stephen shook her hand and sat down.

“No. Not really. You can see it?”

“Yes. His name is Spot. Short for Spartacus Flavius Maximus. And even that is short for his people’s name for him. He’s a Catalum, or puppy dog. He likes Old Roman culture.”

Stephen eyed the demon on her head. Like his, it had four legs, a tail, floppy ears, and a snout. This “Spot” demon was obviously named so because its spots were vaguely heart-shaped, with a big fully heart-shaped one over its left eye. It made a low whining sound and tilted its head to the side. Spot was seemingly confused. Then it moved its head back to normal and started to happy smile.

Stephen’s demon got on top of his shoe and laid its body against his boot.

Sandy continued: “Catalums are aliens native to the Andromeda galaxy and command an empire that spans the Virgo Supercluster. They only look superficially like dogs from the home world. Their biology is definitely alien.

“Sometimes, the empire will assign a Catalum to people they deem trustworthy and safe. Spot was assigned to me ten years ago and I’ve been traveling this world with him in tow. His people have an extremely advanced series of cloaking technology placed on their members that only allow us trustworthy people to see them.

“Have… you been shunned because no one else can see yours?”

Stephen nodded. His eyes moistened thinking back about how far his life went down when he tried to convince people of his demon.

“That’s… disappointing. While I do not think it was the fault of your little one, it’s tragic that you had to deal with that.”

Sandy reached down under the table and Stephen’s demon walked over to her hands. She picked it up and placed it on the table. It made some sounds. Sandy scritched it behind its right ear.

“His name is Maxwell. Short for Maximillian Wellington the Third. Apparently, he’s a student of history. And was around the time when Napoleon tried to conquer Europe.”

“Wait, wasn’t that a thousand years ago?”

“Indeed. The Catalum people attained biological immortality millions of years ago. Maxwell is a little over a thousand years old. Spot is a youngster and only about thirty years old.

“Although, really, they’re both babies. They won’t be considered mentally adults until the ten-thousand-year mark.

“Maxwell cannot speak Basic. Spot can. Also, by the way, if you haven’t noticed, Spot likes to sit on my head.”

“Din’ notice.” Stephen chuckled. He was warming up to the woman and the two demons. He was no longer seeing Maxwell as an evil omen.

“Well, that’s because Catalums come from a planet that required them as a species to live on tops of plateaus. They’re adept climbers and only when they transitioned from small tribes to a civilization, they ventured into the planet’s valleys. That was when they could fend off their predators. They have a tendency to sit on top of people or on high places.”

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We stopped in our tracks, a latte in my hand, and the door in hers as I was leaving and she was entering. We stood in silence, assessing one another and the creatures behind.

“You see it too?” She mouthed to me, her eyes were watery and heavy, the sky blue irises contrasted by the deep purple circles under her eyes.

I gave her a curt nod, not wanting the Beast to see that I saw what I saw. Be vague. Be mindful. Be stealthy. The Beast that followed her was small, not much bigger than myself. It was covered, in what I presumed to be a cape, but I could see the two features that my creature had - it’s stomach churning, pointy tooth smile, and large empty white eyes…my Beast, however, had eyes as black as night.

Our creatures minded a good distance between, a dozen feet or so. Despite that distance, I knew they could hear, knew they could see. The Beast never missed a thing.

On the spot, I had to invent a way to communicate, to speak with this woman. “Oh my gosh, hey! I haven’t seen you in so long!” I exclaimed, bringing her into a hug. “Play along,” I said ever so quietly, I’m not sure I didn’t just imagine it. “How are you?”

“I’m great,” she smiled, a pained smile; I heard the creature behind her snort. “And you?”

I huffed, “I’m exhausted,” I held up my latte. “That’s why I needed this guy, can I treat you to one?”

She nodded, “absolutely!” She let herself in, and I couldn’t help but catch the creature that followed her. Despite the strength and quickness that this woman closed that door, the creature slid through it with ease and grace; almost like a dancer.

She followed me to the counter where I placed the order. “And the name?” The barista asked, very unenthused to be serving me once again. Everyone The Beast touched reacted the same way to me.

“Addison,” she said, and I could feel her creature stir at her words. At her name. At her. My gut started to rumble.

“It’ll be $5.79,” the barista accepted my payment and moved on, while I stood at the bar waiting for her drink, I motioned for her to sit down at a table.

Quickly enough, her drink was in my hand. “Excuse me,” I whispered to the barista, this one reminded me of a pixie. “can I borrow your marker?”

She rolled the marker over to me, clearly uninterested in what I had to say. I jotted down my phone number, and rolled the marker back, catching glimpse of The Beast. Of my creature.

He had an air to him. One of grief. It never touched anything it was around, except for people of course. It was always floating, motionless above the ground. Watching. With black eyes, soulless eyes. And a grin, that stretched the size of its face; containing teeth sharper than I’d ever seen. I’d never seen what those teeth could do, but the nightmares I’d been having told me everything I needed to know.

Right now though, it’s eyes were on Addison’s creature; and it’s was on mine; they knew the other existed. Did they know we could see the other?

I laid her cup down, “well, I really should be going. Have a lovely day,” I hurried out of the shop rather fast, feeling The Beast follow in tow.

•••••••••••••

It had been weeks. I still heard nothing from Addison. These weeks had been rough, the nightmares worse. I don’t know how I know, but I know my time is ending soon. The nightmares are getting worse, my plants are dead, and my loved ones no longer loved me - all because of this creature, my creature, The Beast. As I prepped for bed, I could feel it in the corner watching me; malice in gaze and hunger in his smile. It was nearly feeding time. It was my end.

He had taken everything from me, stolen the life I had built for myself. And now, his meal, baked in its glory; was ready.

I looked at The Beast, tears filling my grey eyes. “I hope you’re happy.” He growled in response, his smile growing wider; he was proud of the meal he had prepared. My phone rang, which snapped us out of our trance. I went to it, not reading the caller. Not particularly caring. “Yes?”

“This…this is Addison,” the voice was faint, fearful. The Beast snapped his head in my direction.

Oh no.

“Are you okay?” I asked, realizing I’d never told her my name.

“You need to run,” she whispered.

I turned around, ready to sprint; instead, coming face-to-face with The Beast.

I wasn’t fast enough.

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I’m not scared anymore something happened, something inside of me changed like a switch went of inside of my head it just clicks now.

I walk over to the woman and I ask “So you see it too.”

She replies, “Finally! I’m not crazy! You have no idea how long I’ve been alone with this thing for so long. All I wanted was to know that I can’t be the only one with this thing. Please I’m begging you just kill me! I don’t want to live like this anymore I can’t take it.”

I replied, “I can’t do that. Why don’t you just stay with me for a while until we can learn how to manage this thing.”

Want to see how it ends? 15 upvotes and I’ll post a second part.